Jennifer Knight Dills intertwines history and dance to
create her masters concert “Entertaining Muses”
By Sara Jarrett
Oregon Daily Emerald
a dance is so often labeled
/m a success or failure by
AM what’s seen on the stage,
JL X but artists like Jennifer
Knight Dills argue a deeper look
is necessary to find the true mag
ic of Terpsichore the muse of
choreography.
“What is important to me, is
the work that led up to this [con
cert],” Knight Dills said of her
masters thesis concert titled “En
tertaining Muses: Dance Reflec
tions and Revelations,” which
will be performed Nov. 12 and 13
in the Dougherty Dance Theatre.
The concert as a whole is about
contemporizing his
torical aesthetics, in
an attempt at synthe
sizing ideas,” Knight
Dills said.
The evening-length
performance includes
two historical master
piece solos per
formed by Knight
Dills. She has also
choreographed four
original works based
on ideologies of three
historical modern
dance masters.
The solos are “Two
Ecstatic Themes” —
originally choreo
graphed by Doris
Humphrey in 1931
— and Valerie Bettis’
1943 piece titled
The Desperate Heart. Universi
ty dance professor Janet Descut
ner, who is a certified dance re
constructor and Knight Dills’
thesis advisor, reconstructed
those two dances for this week
end’s event.
“It wouldn’t have happened
without the relationship we
forged,” Knight Dills said of Des
cutner’s role as an artistic direc
tor for the two solos.
While performing the recon
structed pieces, Descutner said
Knight Dills has allowed her
own voice to shine through by
exploring contemporary themes
and relationships, and by finding
how the movement uniquely res
onates within each performer.
Bettis choreographed “The
Desperate Heart,” for example, in
response to the destruction of
World War II, but Knight Dills
has been able to connect those
movements to contemporary is
sues. The choreographer likened
some of the gestures used to
those of a person rubbing needle
tracks on his or her arm.
“Jennifer is examining the
crises of today, like drugs and
AIDS,” Descutner said.
Dance, she added, is not “an
antique or preserved historic
monument the way sculpture is,
but a living thing,” and Knight
Dills is exploring how “the hu
man condition repeats itself over
time.”
Jwo of Knight Dills’ original
pieces, “Evenings... Yesl” and “In
moto perpetuo,” are based on
Humphrey’s theoretical and
choreographic principles. Both
draw from Knight Dills’ studies
with Leslie Main, director of the
Humphrey Foundation in the
United Kingdom. Knight Dills
studied with Main at The Place
dance studio in London for an
intense two-week workshop in
July of 1998.
“Evenings... Yes! ”
explores the fleeting
nature of a quiet
evening that offers a
taste of ease before
that sense is stripped
avvay from you,
Knight Dills ex
plained. The dance is
also demonstrative of
the sibling relation
ship Knight Dills has
with her two sisters.
Though it has be
come about this per
sonal triad in her fam
ily, “it’s ostensibly
about the movement
quality,” she said.
The piece utilizes the
fall and recovery
principle of
Humphrey’s technique.
Knight Dills’ attention to the
choreographic process during
her work on “Evenings... Yes! ”
gave at least one dance student a
new perspective on her craft.
“Jennifer talked a lot about re
flection in every sense of the
word,” said Laura Raucher, a
third year graduate student in
dance science. Raucher said that
her previous experiences have
been “product driven,” rather
than using the process to achieve
originality.
“I wanted to approach dance
making differently,” Knight Dills
said. Her own experience with
choreographers interested in
anything other than the actual
performance is limited, she noted.
“I usually wonder, does this
guy even think I have a brain,”
she mused, referring to some pre
vious artists she’s worked with.
Knight Dills said she is adamant
in making her dancers invested
in the dance in such a way that
it’s as much theirs as it is hers.
“I give my dance to [the
dancers], then we give it to the
viewers,” she said.
Two ways Knight Dills said
All “Muses” photos by Cathrine Kendall Emerald
Dancer Sparrow Hall (front right) rehearses with other dancers for “Entertaining Muses: Dance Reflections and Revelations. ” The per
formance opens Friday night and a second performance is scheduled for Saturday. (Cover photo): Emilie Lavin.
she achieved this goal was
through journal writing and im
provisation.
In both “Evenings... Yes!” and
the Bettis-inspired “Elegiac,”
she asked her dancers to write
down their thoughts as an emo
tional launching point to be
used in personalizing the coach
ing process. Knight Dills then
took aspects from each dancer
during the improv sessions to
build movement phrases, she
explained.
“Elegiac,” which literally
means expressing sorrow, is just
that. The piece deals with can
cer and how the disease has an
impact on everyone. When sta
tistics say one in nine women
will get breast cancer, an artistic
statement must be made, Knight
Dills said.
“It’s a haunting piece.. .with
so much richness, emotionally
and expressively,” she said, de
scribing “Elegiac.”
The psychological framework
that permeates Bettis’ work pro
vided a bridge for Knight Dills to
harness the emotional intensity
of “Elegiac” in actual move
ment.
“It’s an unrelenting kind of
race,” Knight Dills said. The
race is a physical one, in that
there is a backwardness and for
wardness theme to the move
ment, but there is also the race
of life against death.
Inspired by modem dance pi
oneer Isadora Duncan and draw
ing on her experiences with
Duncan scholar Kay Bardsley,
during Bardsley’s residency at
the University in 1997-1998,
Knight Dills choreographed the
dance titled “Signatures,” which
she said explores “water proper
ties of wave rhythm and reflec
tion as a movement motif.”
“Entertaining Muses: Dance
Reflections and Revelations” is
performed this Friday and Sat
urday evening at 8. Tickets cost
$3 and will be available at the
door. Dougherty Dance Theatre
is located on the third floor of
Gerlinger Annex, 1484 Universi
ty St.
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